Day One (and only) of our potty training…

Friday night it was decided. Saturday and Sunday H. and I would co-run an intensive potty training program for our almost-2 year old. Never one to shy away from deep end dives, Curly woke up Saturday morning to be greeted with a pair of ‘big-girl knickers!’ Towels were laid out on carpet, stickers were strategically placed for reward incentive, wipes, dolly and toy potty ready to go for wee wee sing alongs. The first half of the morning went…okay. Three knicker changes later we were outside with a bare butt, and then, success! Curly grabbed her crotch and looked at me, “oooo” she says, “quick, on to the potty”. Hi-fives all round and a couple of stickers. Back inside.

Internet searching had given me the tip of using a timer, every 20-30 minutes put your toddler on the potty for 5-10 minutes. I’ll repeat that, put your squirmy wormy never-still wriggle butt toddler, on an uncomfortable potty seat for 5-10 minutes. Well we tried this, just before nap time…because who wants to clean up a wet cot when your 30 weeks pregnant (yep, throw that into the mix). Amazingly, she sat on that potty for 30 minutes. Numerous ‘incy-wincy spider’ and ‘row row row your boats’ later we still didn’t have a wee. I was ready to give up. Actually I was ready to run sobbing from the house in a fit of hormonal pregnant tears. H stepped in like the wonderful man he is and put our little tyke to bed (knickers under her nappy to still feel some wetness). Ready to give up we heard Curly whinging from the room…H checked on her and low and behold she wanted to do a wee in the potty.

Buoyed by a couple of successes, and a much needed break, we decided to kit out the tiled lounge area for the afternoon session. Timer was set, food and water given, all we had to do was wait. It turns out timing these things is not so much fun for a little girl, even with the cool ‘boing’ alarm on my iphone. By the fifth, “potty time!” alarm Curly would sit her butt on that potty for 5 seconds before jumping up and pointing for a sticker reward, then bursting into devastated tears when these were refused. My back aching, feet puffy, H once again stepped in and took Curly outside only to hear 5 minutes later, “whoops! Quick on the potty” and an unimpressed H, standing there with wee dripping all over his lap. I think he was ready to throw in the towel…or at least use one to wipe the wee dripping down his leg.

Now I’m all for consistency and persistency in parenting…it worked with sleep training. And maybe if I had the patience a few more days of this and Curly would come round, we can only speculate. But a decision had to be made, and that was pretty much ‘screw this three day/one week stuff’, Curly can potty train herself.